'Light' and 'mild' cigarette brands to be scrapped in new smoking crackdown

Popular "light" and "mild" brands of cigarettes will be removed from the shelves next year in a government drive to highlight the dangers of smoking, ministers said yesterday.

Brands such as Marlboro Lights and Camel Lights beloved of student smokers will have to be changed under the crackdown on "misleading doublespeak" used to promote cigarettes.

New health warnings printed on all cigarette packets will also highlight the dangers of smoking-related impotence as part of the campaign, designed to stop smoking being seen as "sexy", Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, said.

New regulations governing cigarette brands and packaging are expected to come into force in April, alongside a national ban on tobacco advertising.

The Department of Health is planning a £15m advertising campaign to highlight the dangers of smoking.

The Health and Safety Executive is also carrying out a review of smoking in the workplace.

Mr Milburn said: "Smoking is the principle avoidable cause of death in our country; it kills around 120,000 people a year and is responsible for one in five deaths. Action across the piece is necessary to reduce it.

"In 1996 around 13 per cent of 11 to 13-year-olds were regular smokers. That had fallen to 10 per cent by last year. But there is a lot more to be done to combat smoking, particularly amongst girls.

"From next spring all tobacco advertising on hoardings and in the media will be banned. We know that tobacco advertising is the recruiting sergeant in particular for young people to start this habit.

"From next year there will be stronger health warnings on packages of cigarettes. In particular, frankly misleading doublespeak from the industry about certain products being light and mild will go, and the strengthened health warnings will include information about the link between tobacco consumption and impotence."

"For the first time the Government will be publishing the list of additives that go into cigarettes. Those additives include everything from solvents to sweeteners."

Ministers aim to cut the number of young people smoking from 13 per cent in 1996 to 9 per cent by 2010. Research has shown that girls are more likely to smoke than boys; 11 per cent of girls were regular smokers, compared with 8 per cent of boys.

Mr Milburn also faced calls to ban smoking in public places, and the Conservatives attacked the Government for "trying to help its friends in Formula One at the expense of the public's health". John Baron, a shadow Health minister, accused Mr Milburn of blocking attempts to bring forward the ban on sponsorship of Formula One events by tobacco companies by a year at Monday's meeting of the European Council of Ministers.

Mr Milburn dismissed the claims, saying the European tobacco directive "wasn't strong enough and secondly that it wasn't clear enough".

He said to Mr Baron: "We have tobacco advertising legislation in our country, which incidentally your party opposed, which is all about not just banning tobacco advertising but banning tobacco promotion.

"And if there's one thing I know and have learnt over the course of the last five or six years it is that the tobacco industry will be absolutely relentless in delaying and preventing any measures which are necessary to protect the public."